Splitting a cohort into groups — Pacten Guides

2026-09-24

Your workspace may call a group a Cohort, a Class, or a Trip, and its people Students or Members — same features, your sector's words. This guide says cohort and students.

Groups are the smaller teams inside a cohort — case-study teams, project pods, study squads. Everybody stays enrolled in the cohort; a group only decides who works alongside whom.

Where they live

Open the cohort and choose the Groups tab — it sits between Roster and Gradebook, alongside Schedule, Materials, Payments, Messages and Activity Log. Until you create one you will see "No groups yet — create one so students can pick (or be put into) a team."

Two ways to create them

New group opens with two modes along the top: One group and Auto-split roster.

One group

• Group name — free text. The field suggests Team Alpha, but anything works.
• Capacity (optional) — the most people allowed in it. Leave it blank for no limit.

Auto-split roster

This is the fast path when you want the whole cohort in teams at once.

• How many groups — between 2 and 12. As you type, the panel previews the result: "4 unassigned students → ~2 per group".
• The groups are named for you — Group A, Group B, and so on. If you already have groups, the lettering carries on from where you left off rather than starting again at A.
• The button names exactly what will happen, e.g. "Split 4 into 2 groups".

What "Evenly" actually does — and three things to expect

Split method offers Evenly, and next to it Random shuffle marked coming soon. Random shuffle is not available yet; Evenly is the only method that runs today.

Evenly deals students out one at a time, in the order they appear on your roster — first student to the first group, second to the second, and back round again. It is not a shuffle. The same roster will always produce the same teams, so if you want a different mix, split first and then move people by hand.

Two more things worth knowing before you press it:

• It only places students who are not already in a group. Anyone you have already assigned stays exactly where they are — so you can hand-pick two teams, then auto-split whoever is left.
• Auto-split groups are created without a capacity. A group you make one at a time can carry a cap; groups made this way have none. Add caps afterwards if you need them.

Who places students

Both modes ask Who places students?, and the answer matters more than it looks:

• You assign — "You place them into groups." This is the one to pick if you intend to rotate roles, because rotation works from a roster you control.
• Self-select — "Students pick their own team on their hub."

It is not a one-time decision — you can switch any group between assigned and self-select later from the padlock on that group.

Once the groups exist

• Rename — click the group's name to edit it in place.
• Move someone — assign them to another group, or remove them from the one they are in.
• Delete a group — the students return to the unassigned pool; nothing about their enrolment changes.
• Anyone not yet placed is listed under the groups by name, so you can see at a glance who is still waiting.

What students see

Students find their team on the People tab of their hub. If the group is set to self-select they can join it themselves from there; if it is assigned, they simply see where you have put them.

Rotating roles comes next

Groups are just the teams. If you also want leadership roles — project manager, coordinator, subject-matter expert — to move around week by week, that is Role rotation, which appears underneath the groups as soon as you have created at least one. See Rotating roles across your groups.

Related guides

• Rotating roles across your groups
• Managing a group experience
• The three levels: Journey, Group, Participant